Short answer: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), Mexico's president from December 2018 to September 2024, never severed or downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel and explicitly refused calls to do so after October 7, 2023. But he did not take Israel's side either. He called the response in Gaza "irrational" without ever formally condemning Hamas, declined to back Israel's stated right to self-defense the way Mexico's own foreign ministry did, and stopped short of joining Colombia, Chile, Honduras, and Bolivia in recalling ambassadors or cutting relations. Israel's own embassy in Mexico City publicly rebuked him for it. As of August 2026, he is a private citizen living in Chiapas.
What Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has actually said and done
- October 9, 2023: Two days after the Hamas attack, at his morning press conference, AMLO called for "peaceful negotiations on both sides," said he did not want to "take sides," and did not condemn Hamas by name, citing Mexico's constitutional non-intervention doctrine, according to The Yucatan Times.
- October 9, 2023: The Israeli embassy in Mexico City publicly rebuked AMLO that same afternoon, saying neutrality "ultimately means endorsing and supporting terrorism." Ambassador Einat Kranz Neiger separately called his push for "balance" tantamount to supporting terrorism, per Pulse News Mexico and the Wilson Center.
- October 9, 2023: In a notable break from the president, Mexico's own Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE) issued a statement condemning Hamas's attack and affirming Israel's right to self-defense, a gap between the ministry's language and AMLO's own words that the Wilson Center flagged at the time.
- November 7, 2023: AMLO stated at his press conference, "We are not going to break relations with Israel, nor are we going to have a position beyond seeking peace," rejecting the pressure to sever ties that some other Latin American governments had acted on, as reported by La Jornada.
- May 24, 2024: Asked whether Mexico would formally recognize a Palestinian state, AMLO said "prefiero esperar" (I'd rather we wait), declining to extend recognition and repeating that taking a side would not help stop the killing in Gaza, according to Infobae.
- November 30, 2025: Roughly 14 months after leaving office, AMLO reappeared publicly via a livestream from his Chiapas ranch, La Chingada, to present his book "Grandeza," confirming he remains alive and in retirement, per El Imparcial. No Israel-related remarks were reported from this appearance.
The bigger picture
AMLO led Mexico from December 1, 2018 to September 30, 2024, and his government's posture toward Israel stayed consistent through the entire October 7 war: keep diplomatic relations intact, refuse to formally take either side, and frame everything as a plea for peace under Mexico's constitutional non-intervention doctrine. That is a real, documented refusal to boycott or sever ties, which is the closest thing to "support" in the public record. It is not the same as backing Israel. AMLO never condemned Hamas by name, called the situation "irrational" without assigning responsibility, and was publicly rebuked by Israel's own embassy for treating the war as a two-sided dispute rather than an attack Israel was responding to. His government's foreign ministry actually went further than he did, condemning Hamas and affirming Israel's self-defense right on the record. He also declined, repeatedly through 2024, to extend formal recognition to a Palestinian state, preferring to wait. His successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, is Mexico's first president of Jewish descent and has taken a more pro-Palestinian public posture since taking office, which is sometimes conflated with AMLO's record in casual searches. The two are distinct people with distinct records, and AMLO himself has no documented Jewish ancestry; his own traced roots are Spanish, on his maternal side, from Cantabria. He left office in October 2024 and has lived since then at his ranch in Chiapas, making occasional public appearances, most recently a book livestream in late November 2025, with no reported activity specific to Israel since leaving office.
The bottom line
AMLO never boycotted Israel or cut ties, which is the literal answer to "did he support Israel" in the narrowest sense. But his actual public record leans toward studied neutrality bordering on discomfort with Israel's conduct of the war, not active support: no condemnation of Hamas, a rebuke from Israel's own embassy for that omission, and a foreign ministry that publicly outpaced him in backing Israel's right to self-defense. As of August 2026, he is alive, retired, and has made no notable Israel-related statements since leaving office in 2024.
Where you actually stand matters
Public figures hedge, qualify, and calculate. Your own support for Israel does not have to. If you want a plain, unhedged way to say where you stand, the I Stand With Israel bracelet in our I Stand With Israel collection says it in six words, no diplomatic non-intervention doctrine required.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
